The metric system of weights and measures / by J. Pickering Putnam.

  • J. Pickering Putnam
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The metric system of weights and measures / by J. Pickering Putnam. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    35/106 page 23
    after all is a French measure) has ceased to be used in England for a century or two, the proverb seems to be still as lively as ever. As for stigmatizing the Metric S^^stem as French, it was never quite just to do so, and it is at present altogether absurd; since this system has become the system of more than half the civilized world. The report continues : — The rejection of the bill was seconded by Mr. Steven- son, and was supported by Mr. Scourfield, by Alderman Lawrence, who pointed out that the adoption of the litre would diminish the poor man's pint of beer without any proportionate diminution of price [a surprisingly knowing alderman this must have been], and by Mr. Fothergill. Mr. Healey pointed out the inconvenience of having to go to a foreign capital for standards, wliich might at any mo- ment be melted down in a general conflagration of the city. If agriculturists want a uniform measure, why on earth did they not adopt the Imperial bushel ? This last argument, however weighty it might have seemed at the time, has lost its force since the Inter- national Conference of 1872 met at Paris and caused the various standard meters to be made for distribution, as above described. The bill was supported by forty-three associated Cham- bers of Commerce and Agriculture, by Farmers' Clubs, Workingmen's Associations, and many scientific bodies. It was supported by the representatives of the largest constituencies in the kingdom — Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Leeds, Birmingham, North Staffordshire, South Leicestershire, and South Norfolk. It was opposed, by the member for Cambridge University, on the ground that the French unit was not a proper unit; by the astronomer Eoyal and Sir J. Herschel. Since 1872, again, these ob- iections are, of course, all rendered harmless]. For the
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3